I think I get Kafka now

Or at least The Metamorphosis and The Trial. Both of them feature young men who try to live by society's rules and end up exploited for their efforts.

Some people associate Kafka's work with some of the earlier works of Albert Camus, for instance The Stranger or The Fall.

The thing about Kafka is that you can read literally anything into him and it works. I like to read him as a sort of modern Job, but his God is one that never makes himself known.